Into the Jungle
by Concealed Convict-Act 2
Summary: AU. Adam starts Degrassi with the intention of laying low and having a quiet year. If only he knew that Degrassi never lets you stay unnoticed for long. Warning: Everyone is very different.
1. Chapter 1

It's me again. I haven't wrote anything in a while, so try to be patient. I never claim to be a good writer, I just try. I hope you like it.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or any Degrassi characters.**

* * *

Into the jungle we shall go.

Or at least me.

God knows Drew could fit in anywhere. I have to try to stay under the radar and well...it 's probably going to be a difficult year at this new school.

We're starting this year completely fresh, not knowing one person. I'll be a sophomore, Drew will be a junior.

I feel a little bad for making him switch schools with me but only a tiny bit.

How can I be sympathetic when he laughed along with his friends when I got trampled by some fist friendly jock?

I didn't really make it very easy for myself either if I'm really honest. Last year was a total bust. I rarely attended my classes, barely passed, and half the time was in the middle of some shit.

Smoking weed every other day underneath the stairwell, getting into fights 24/7 , and not winning either, all the while never seeing a day without a hangover didn't make the year the best.

A major reason for the year being such a pain in the ass was the fact it was the year I finally started transitioning.

I didn't expect everyone to be supportive. I knew some people wouldn't understand, that I'd have to deal with being harassed by some meathead every once in a while.

What I didn't expect was no one actually accepting or even tolerating me.

"_Faggot!" I heard while a water bottle hit the back of my neck._

Maybe that's why I got into all that crap. If I can't get peace at school or at home for being myself, I'm going to fucking make my own peace somewhere else.

I stopped smoking and the really heavy drinking in the beginning of summer. Yeah, sometimes it took the edge off but the lack of control made me too paranoid to really keep doing it. The folks still think I am though. Who cares? I like to keep them on their toes.

I only really like Omar, my dad. His wife Audra, my step-mom, I truly believe is a half demon half pmsing bitch, which are the same thing to me.

I can count the amount of times I_ didn't_ want to see her run over by a zebra on one hand.

She practically didn't let us do anything. Especially me.

Drew could go out to the movies with his girlfriend/friends alone while I wasn't allowed to even go to the park alone without permission and a text every 10 minutes.

She forced this new rule on me, saying it was for my best interest, when she saw some of kids from school egging me on the way home.

At first it made sense so I didn't say anything even though I didn't like it.

I'm glad she didn't ever get to see what happened at school, especially the writing all over my locker. It came to a point where the janitors stopped cleaning it.

My skin quickly became thick and I really didn't care. It became my just another part in my life.

She didn't get that though.

In the middle of the year was when I started sneaking out, right after another failed attempt to talk to her about it.

I remember some guy was talking about a "totally killer" party that was going to happen that night and only a few blocks from my neighborhood.

After that party, I started hearing about other ones which I also went to. It became a cycle.

I think she found out around the third or fourth time I snuck back in. I was completely wasted and kept stumbling around, eventually knocking over a vase.

When she came down she immediately started shouting. When she realized I really didn't care, she got even angrier.

She yelled at me loud enough to wake Omar and Drew, who slept like they were in a coma.

What made me remember that part of the night was the fact it was the first time I walked away from her.

It was also the first time I told her to fuck off.

"ADAM! DREW! Lights off!" Speak of the devil..

I was too tired to fight so I got up and turned the lights off.

My bed was comfortably warm and I was starting to slip into unconsciousness.

My name is Adam Torres. I am a female-to-male transgender and tomorrow I am starting at Degrassi High.

* * *

**I realize it was short but you have to start somewhere, no? **

**Let me know what you think.**

_**~S.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or any Degrassi characters.**

* * *

Waking up in the morning was always a struggle.

It wasn't the actual waking up that was a problem as Adam was somewhat of an early bird.

It was getting ready that was the issue.

He tried to stall the trip to the bathroom, the trip to the mirror, as much as he could even though he knew eventually he would have to go.

The only thing worse than having to hold your bladder in the morning is to have to face yourself, naked and bare.

Or at least Adam thought so.

After 15 minutes of just relaxing in silence he knew he had to or else he would wet the bed **_and_** be late.

He quietly grabbed some clothes and walked to the bathroom.

Walking in, he was immediately filled with dread.

It was sort of ridiculous. Every day he did it, yet each time it still felt like he jumped into a Harry Potter book and was walking straight into a dementor's cave.

Getting it over with as fast as possible seemed to be the best option for today since it was the first day of school.

The thought of school made him silently groan and momentarily forget about his other problems for a moment. Everything was just crashing on him today, huh?

Deciding he stalled enough, he glanced into the mirror and instantly self-hate grew inside him, rising like bile in his throat.

Nothing about him was right.

Where was his flat chest?

_Why did he have breasts?_

Where was his hair?

_Why was he so smooth?_

He finally shook himself out of it and tore his eyes away. It was insanely hard not to punch his reflection as he walked past the mirror to use the shower.

When he actually got into the shower he closed his eyes and got the job done as fast as he could. The less time he had to be completely bare and touch his flawed body, the better.

Right after getting out a few minutes later, he immediately searched for where he threw his clothes.

He ended up grabbing a blue and black plaid shirt, a light gray undershirt, baggy jeans, and his binder.

As he started to dress he thought about when he actually got his binder.

A year earlier, after saving up the money needed, he asked Omar in privacy if he could buy Adam one of the binders online with his credit card. Adam didn't have one and at that time he respected both Omar and, shockingly, Audra enough not take theirs even though he would pay it back in cash.

At first Omar was resistant but after having a talk with Adam, he gave in.

Adam respectfully paid up and told Omar thank you, but never spoke about it again. Neither did Omar.

Drew's voice suddenly interrupted Adam's thoughts when he shouted through the door,

"Adam! Get out! Believe it or not I need time to sculpt the beauty that is-"

Adam opened the door, effectively cutting Drew off.

"Try not to use the whole gel bottle this time, Slick." Adam muttered as he walked past Drew and down the stairs.

After passing by Audra to get into the kitchen, he poured himself a glass of orange juice and grabbed a piece of toast.

He would've liked to have just skateboarded to the school but he knew that Audra wanted to drive them. It was too much effort to argue about this with her, and subsequently Omar too, so he didn't say a word and barely even looked at her.

When Drew finally finished, it was 7:39 a.m., about 20 minutes until school started.

"Come on guys," Audra said as she directed us to get in the car.

He sat up at the front with her since Drew already hogged up the backseat with his bags.

The ride was quiet and they got there surprisingly fast.

Adam was getting out of the car when he heard Audra whisper to Drew, "Be careful. Watch out for your sis-..brother."

He just grinded his teeth and walked away even faster from the car.

_What a way to start the morning.._

Adam started climbing the stairs when he thought to actually take a look at the school.

It was a pretty big, average looking building he decided after glancing at it briefly.

The student body was even less interesting.

Looking around he only saw the same stereotypical jock, nerd, and cheerleading cliques that haunted his old school and the schools before it.

At least he didn't have to worry about anything happening around here.

With that in mind he walked into the building to go find his schedule and get this day over with.

* * *

_Biology Honors _1st Period

Lovely. Work in the morning.

How did he even get this class? His class average was absolutely not honor level..

He found the class right after the bell rang.

_Really?_

He walked in fast, hoping to just slip into the room. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side.

"Ahem."

Adam turned toward the voice and saw a balding man, who most likely was the teacher, looking at him with a look that could only come off as _"I saw you"._

_Want a cookie?_

He didn't want to get into trouble on the first day so he didn't say anything and just stared at the male teacher.

Since Adam wasn't saying anything the teacher broke the silence by asking him, "And who might you be?"

Adam was tired of standing around ane being looked at like a zoo animal so he answered curtly, "Adam Torres. Can I go sit down now?"

The man narrowed his eyes at Adam for a moment then nodded.

With that Adam walked down the aisle and sat in the last row behind some guy with pumpkin orange hair.

After another "ahem" from the teacher the class reluctantly averted their attention back to him.

Since it was the first day, they weren't really doing anything except covering the rules of the classroom.

Adam was even starting to relax until he heard the teacher, who he now knew was Mr. Morris, tell them that they were going to use the last 35 minutes of class to get to know each other.

Half the students seemed to think the same thing:

_Are you kidding me?_

**_OoOoOoO_**

The entire class ended up getting into a circle so close they were all touching.

"We are going to play a game." Mr. Morris told them.

An awkward silence ensued while they all waited, sandwiched between each other, for him to give them some instructions.

Adam couldn't care less. His glare got him some extra room and he wasn't as uncomfortable as the others.

About two minutes later Mr. Morris spoke again, "Nevermind. I will give you 30 seconds to pair up. Whoever is left, I will pair up myself. Go!"

Everyone started scrambling around like chickens that lost their heads. Adam took a moment to laugh before looking around to see if there was a semi-normal person in the bunch.

Finally he spotted someone in the corner that didn't look too bad.

He walked over towards the short girl and waited until she looked up from her nails.

"Partners?" Adam simply asked.

After giving him a look over she nodded, right in time before they would've had Morris choose someone else for both of them.

After Morris paired up the last of the straggling kids he turned towards the rest of them and clapped.

"Good! Now you're going to learn more about your partner. At the end of class I'm going to pick 3 random groups to present what they've learned tomorrow so don't waste this time! And…start!"

I looked at my new partner expectantly, waiting for her to ask me a question. She didn't say anything for a moment, just biting her lip and fiddling with her hands. Adam decided to go first instead of most likely waiting until the end of class for her to finally say something.

"So what's your name?" Since he didn't even know her name, he went with that first.

This seemed to snap the girl out of whatever day-dream/mood she was in.

"Alli Bhandari. What's yours?"

"Adam." He answered and watched her write his name on a piece of scrap paper.

They continued with some basic questions like "Where are you from?" and "Do you have any pets?"

It was kind of funny when they got to the pets question. They found out that both of them had really strict parents and started sharing stories until the bell rang.

_Huh. That was fast. _At least they didn't get picked.

"It was really nice meeting you!" Alli said as she began to walk towards the door.

"Yeah, you too." Adam said as he held the door for her. _Hmm..one person I don't hate. Nice._

Adam was about to try to find his next class when he heard his name being called.

He turned around automatically and saw Alli walking quickly back to him.

"I was wondering," She started saying before getting pushed by some kid's backpack. Adam's hand immediately settled her before she could stumble and waited for her to continue.

"I was wondering if you would want to sit with me and my friends today at lunch?"

Adam was about to correct her grammar then decline when he realized if he sat alone and Drew saw him, Audra would definitely find out and give him a rough time. Plus Alli wasn't that bad. In fact, she was pretty alright. Smart too.

"Alright." He eventually said.

She grinned up at him. "Great! I'll meet you by the cafeteria entrance!"

"Kay." He mumbled before setting out to find his next class.

He reached the room right when the bell rang.

* * *

His next classes went mostly the same way, but without the "Let's get to know each other!" part which he was pretty happy about.

They basically went over the rules of the classroom and what they should expect they will be doing this quarter.

It wasn't very long until the lunch bell rung and Adam followed the mass of students.

When he got to the cafeteria it took him a few minutes to locate Alli.

"Hey!" She called out to him as he walked over.

"Hey." He said back and walked in with her. "Is the food good here?"

Alli grimaced. "Not especially. Most people go to the Dot instead."

Adam decided he would look into it once he saw what they were serving. He safely went with chocolate milk, apples, and some vanilla pudding.

After they got their food, Adam followed Alli to her table.

There already was a blonde girl sitting at one side so Adam sat across from her and Alli slid in with her.

It was awkward for a minute before Alli introduced them.

"Adam, this is Jenna. Jenna, this is my lab partner Adam."

"Hey." Adam nodded to Jenna.

"Hi." Jenna said back quickly before turning to Alli. "Where is everyone else?"

Alli rolled her eyes while she opened her water. "It's the first day. People get confused."

There was another pause before someone said anything else.

"What grade are you in?" She asked, turning back to Adam.

To be honest, Jenna was already annoying Adam and he checked his watch again before answering.

"10th." _Seven more minutes. _"You?"

"Same."

Awkward silence filled the air for a few moments before Adam got up.

"I'm going to try to find my next class. Nice meeting you."

After Alli told him they should do it again tomorrow when everybody was here, Adam promptly left.

He actually made it to his next class, Advanced English, before the bell rung which put him in a considerably better mood.

Unfortunately that was the only class he made it to on time the entire day.

* * *

"So how were your days?" Omar asked over dinner.

"Fine." Adam said. He was actually being honest too. It wasn't as bad as he thought but still wasn't all that good either.

"It was great! They have a killer football field and-" Adam tuned out the rest of Drew's monologue and tried to remember if he had homework.

He did, but not too bad. He only had to write a 5 paragraph essay for his English class about his summer.

He tuned back at the end and asked if he could be excused.

He didn't wait for their answer and instead just got up to put his dishes away then head to his room.

When he was done with his homework he got ready for bed.

He wasn't really tired but he was definitely bored enough to try to sleep.

He tossed and turned for a half hour thinking about what tomorrow might bring.

Before he fell asleep Adam decided on one thing.

Vanilla pudding tasted good with apples.

* * *

Good, bad, awful? Let me know.

~S.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or any Degrassi characters.**

* * *

Today was his second day at Degrassi and it was definitely better than the day before.

Adam decided earlier that today he was going to do what he had planned to do yesterday: be alone.

He liked not having to think of things to keep the conversation going. He also liked the silence.

While he was at the Dot it had started raining slightly and that combined with sitting in silence while reading a comic made it so relaxing he thought he was dreaming.

He even still had a small smile on his face when he walked into the classroom.

With a relaxed sigh, Adam sat down in the back row like the day before and looked at their agenda for today.

Apparently the teacher was going to pair them up and they would talk about the poem they picked for last night's homework and why they picked it with their assigned partner.

When the bell rung the teacher didn't waste any time and immediately started putting random kids together.

"Adam Torres.." Hearing his name finally being called, Adam looked to the teacher to tell him who he was partnered with, hoping it wasn't with anyone too weird.

"And Clare Edwards."

Right.

Adam had absolutely no fucking idea who that was.

Thankfully, the teacher saw his confused look and pointed across the room to a girl with light wavy brown hair. When she saw him looking at her, she waved and he walked over.

"Hey." She said to him as he sat in a chair next to her.

"Hey." Adam muttered back. She seemed nice enough but he just wanted to continue relaxing and maybe sneak in a nap.

"So I chose _There Is Another Sky_ by Emily Dickinson." She stated, getting straight to business.

He grunted and fished for his notebook in his backpack. Once he opened it, he flicked through to the page he wrote the poem and his comments on it on.

"I chose _A Dream Within A Dream _by Edgar Allan Poe."

After he said that, she didn't say anything for a while. When Adam finally lifted his head he saw her looking across the room. Following her gaze he saw a guy across the room which Adam could only describe as dark. Dark hair, dark clothes. Hell, he even had his nails painted black.

"You got a drool going on there." Adam teased, finding this mildly amusing. Innocent girl going for bad boy. Like_ that's_ not a tired cliché.

Clare snapped out of her day-dream at the sound of his voice. Adam chuckled when he saw her cheeks instantly turn a light shade of pink.

"You like him?" He asked even though it was already quite apparent that she did.

"No! I mean, I don't know him." She rattled off. When she continued explaining why she couldn't possibly like him, Adam lost interest and tuned the rest of her ramblings out.

"How about this," He started, cutting her off, "I'll take a nap for the rest of class and you can stare at Boy Wonder over there. That sound good?"

She spluttered for a moment before surprisingly nodding.

Adam hummed contentedly before putting his head back down on the desk.

It seemed like a second later a finger gently nudged him awake.

He grumbled a little before looking up and seeing Clare standing in front of him.

"It's time to go." She said before leaving his desk and walking out of the classroom.

"Whatever." Adam mumbled on his way out and made his way to Remedial Gym.

* * *

Adam could grow to love this class.

Or despise it.

Everyone did what they wanted without any kind of restriction.

Kids were playing their guitars, making out in the corners, and one kid was even selling mysterious things in the corner.

He still wasn't sure what he expected in the first place but it whatever it was, this wasn't it.

Pretty cool or god awful? He'd have to decide that later.

In the mean time, Adam was alternating between reading his comics and drawing on his backpack.

That is, before _she _walked in. After that, he and every other guy in the room couldn't take their eyes off of her.

.With curly, tussled brown hair framing her gorgeous face and tight jeans hugging her backside, she could easily be called the epitome of sex.

When she looked at him, his heart leapt into his throat. She had warm brown doe eyes that he easily could fall into and her lips were as red as a ruby.

"Ms. DeSousa! You're late! Dentention!" Coach yelled, interrupting the moment.

_Oh so __**now**__ he decides to pay attention. That's totally fair._

"Yeah. Whatever." The girl said with a bored tone, obviously not giving a rat's ass.

As she made her way to the bleachers, Adam wondered if he should try to talk to her or not.

On one hand, she was **hot. **On the other, she looked like trouble and Adam really wanted a drama free year.

But she was **hot.**

Eventually the desire to find out who exactly this chick won and Adam made his way over to where she was sitting.

"Hey." He said while taking a seat next to her.

The girl looked up and nodded at him before going back to filing her nails.

"What's your name?" He asked after a few seconds of silence passed.

"Why do you want to know? What are you, a niner?" She sneered at him.

"10th." Adam responded evenly, "I'm Adam."

After giving him a look over she said, "Not interested."

_Ouch._

Deciding to play it cool he said, "That's alright. Soon enough you will be."

When she raised her eyebrow he just smirked and walked back to his corner.

_Fake it until you make, fake it until you make it._

* * *

**One of the reviews said they wanted it to be "Badam". I don't want to give anything away but I will say that Badam might happen but might not be long term.**

**Reviews make updates come out faster so review and tell me what ya think!**

**_-S._**


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